I am no expert, though last week I did receive a lovely message from someone who had found one of my Public Member Trees on Ancestry, thanking me for the information I had provided on a particular family that she had despaired of getting the “911” on in time to get it to an elderly aunt for Christmas: “You must be a genealogist!”

You are so kind to think so and to say so, but I am not - not a professional or even an advanced amateur. Perhaps I am in the early intermediate phase, but for that I have to thank the people who write some excellent genealogy books, who run my local genealogy society, who put on the NGS and FGS conferences, who produce Webinars, who run the genealogy rooms at the libraries I visit, who write to me and provide me with information because they have seen my blog, my website, and my online queries, and my fellow genealogy bloggers, a number of whom I think of and refer to as friends.

I do think there is a recognizable genealogy community, and I include all of these people in it - even if they belong to subcommunities that are completely separate or have only the minutest of Venn diagram overlap with one another.

While the lofty leaders of the community - the top dogs/super-achievers/ professionals/trendsetters of genealogy - may not hang out with the lowest circles of the community - the proliferators of those dubious, deathless, endlessly duplicated online trees - they write the books that may help to turn a newbie or two from a tree copier into a real researcher.

Again, I am not an expert and I do not think that I am a trendsetter. I did not start blogging to become a trendsetter. Yes, I blog about my research. That was the original purpose of the blog and continues to be its main purpose: to further my research.

What I can offer to the genealogy community is the experience and the point of view of a dedicated amateur - and I think that there is a need for this in the genealogy community:

The companies need to hear what we amateurs like/do not like, can use/cannot use, and will pay for/will not pay for (and that even a very tech-savvy segment of the Genealogical Community will revolt when there is even a whiff of a “No Books” policy).

The professionals need to hear what we amateurs still very much need from the professionals: education, an example to emulate, and yes, services to avail ourselves of when we just cannot get any farther with a particular line of research or need someone to help us navigate the process for admission to a lineage society.

Our fellow amateurs need to hear our expressions of commiseration/ congratulation/empathy and our descriptions of our own research methods, experiences, sources, and much more. What I like most about the Genealogy Community, in its best embodiment, is that everyone can learn from everyone else, professional and amateur alike. An amateur may hold an important document, compile a set of graveyard transcriptions, write about a recent repository where procedures have changed, or share a particular memory that can advance a professional’s research. I wrote about some of these thoughts in two previous posts: “Toward a Genealogical Democracy” and “Sharing and Scholarship.”

What the genealogy blogging subcommunity has offered back to me and to others like me - thanks to some very perceptive, active, and involved people leading the way - has been the big surprise. Friendship, support, instruction, the courage and confidence to branch out and try things I never would have tried before, and especially the sense that I can have a voice and make even a small contribution to improvements in the area of genealogy services, records preservation and availability, and recognition of the educational value of genealogical research. While there are experts among us, I think the kind of influence we may wield as a group is more like that of an advocate, whether a consumer advocate or a public advocate, than that of an expert.

A final thought: Who are the members of the Genealogy Community? They are the people you can talk to about a subject of passionate interest to you - genealogy - and they will not yawn, laugh, or roll their eyes.

As far as I am concerned, everybody in the Genealogy Community is a Somebody.

(Even the Tree Copiers? - Well, take a look sometime at the most recent generations in those trees - occasionally there is a nice surprise or two there.)

Charles Robert Brinlee was the son of Richard Mason Brinlee and Sarah Ellen Petit.

I would love to share information with anyone related to/researching this family; you can contact me at my e-mail address, which can be found by going to my profile page (there is a link to that page in the About Me section to the left).

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Definitely would like to see a spinoff series from tonight's CSI episode, "Genetic Disorder," with Pamela Reed as the genealogist-investigator who gets drawn into a different mystery from week to week through her genealogical research business. It's an idea whose time has come. And it has a built-in audience.

I enjoyed the episode tonight and especially the positive portrayal of genealogists and people who are interested in genealogy. It also included the "dark side" of research that many of us have encountered - digging up family secrets that many people would prefer to see left alone.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

... rabbits. Especially this very special rabbit, Mosby. He belonged to our daughters' second grade teacher, and this ornament was her Christmas gift to the students when our younger daughter was in second grade. Mosby was loved by all; the janitorial staff even built and painted the neatest rabbit house ever for him, with beautiful painted vines and windows on it.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The other day I was very happy to find the blog Moments in Time, A Genealogy Blog by Diana Quinn. Of course, I am always thrilled to find blogs with roots in areas where I research, but that covers most of the South, a bit of New England, and, for my husband’s family, New York and New Jersey. But to find someone researching in Baylor County, the area where my mother was born and grew up (and which also has a few distant family branches from my father’s side) and a county which has never had more than a few thousand residents, is a real treat.

Diana’s family research extends well beyond Texas; recent posts connected with Irish research deal with the Irish Uprising.

James Raymond Jones was the son of John Franklin Jones and Sarah Elizabeth Hefley; two of his brothers married two of Sarah’s sisters. Sarah was the daughter of Richard Mason Brinlee and Sarah Ellen Petit.

I would love to share information with anyone related to/researching this family; you can contact me at my e-mail address, which can be found by going to my profile page (there is a link to that page in the About Me section to the left).

Thursday, December 1, 2011

For the past two years I have participated in GeneaBloggers' Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. This year, instead of repeating my posts, I have decided to feature a Christmas tree ornament each day from December 1 to December 25 and post a link to the original posts (I particularly recommend the December 6 post on Santa).

When it comes to ornaments, I like ...

... old-fashioned handmade ornaments. We bought this ornament (and two others similar to it in red and white) at a craft fair more than 25 years ago. These were so beautiful, I had to restrain myself from buying more than three - at $4 each, they seemed so expensive to me then....

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About Me

After spending my formative years paying no heed to all the family stories, I got hooked on genealogy later in life and am now trying to catch up. My husband and I had long ago developed an interest in graveyards and have enjoyed visiting them while on vacation. I have started two Graveyard Rabbit blogs as a way, in addition to my participation in Findagrave, to help make information to other people who are researching their family history.
If you would like to get in touch with me, simply click on the link below entitled "View My Complete Profile"; this will take you to my Profile page, where you can click on the "Email" link under Contact (right below my profile picture, aka my cat R.B. trying to catch a balloon).